Devil's Night Dawning

Broken Stone Chronicle #1

by Damien Black

For centuries, the monastic Order of St Argo has stood between the mortal vale and the dark forces of the Other Side. Now a mystery warlock seeks an ancient power to rule realms, and only two of its witch hunters can stop him - if they can stay alive long enough to identify him...

When young novice Adelko is assigned to legendary adept Horskram, he rejoices at the chance to lead an adventurous life. An adventurous death isn't what he had in mind - but it comes calling when they learn of a sorcerous theft, one that could bring ruin on the Known World. They suspect a demonologist at work, but don't know anything for sure.

Whoever it is knows who they are and wants to silence them - permanently. As they flee from one danger to another, their homeland erupts into civil war - the rebellious southern barons have reunited and want to dethrone the King of Northalde. The world they know teeters on the brink of a momentous struggle that will reshape it forever...

High fantasy meets gothic horror in this gripping tale of suspense, conflict, faith and magic - the first part in an epic saga of sweeping proportions.

Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Horror, Ebooks, Paranormal

634 pages, Paperback

First published June 7, 2012

About the author

Damien Black is an author born and raised in London. The first three instalments of his five-book epic fantasy series, the Broken Stone Chronicle, are available from Amazon and the Kindle Lending Library. Click here to check them out:

viewauthor.at/DamienBlack

Or to purchase them in audio format, please visit his publisher Podium at their new website here:

https://podiumaudio.com/book-author/d...

Damien has also published an anthology of horror stories, An Urban Pentagram, and a dark fantasy novella, The Returning, also available from Amazon.

The fourth book in the Broken Stone Chronicle is due out in August 2025.

Detailed map graphics of the Broken Stone world can be obtained by contacting Damien via private message. Just enclose a working email address and he will gladly send you hi-res versions!

Thank you for your interest.

Reviews

[Petrik · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sprawling, dark epic fantasy with Gothic horror elements, Devil’s Night Dawning is a good start to a saga.

Taking place in a world where Demons are a real threat, Devil's Night Dawning began with a vivid exorcism scene. The plot focused mainly on Adelko and his mentor, the legendary exorcist and witch hunter Horskram, on a journey to stop a warlock from unleashing an ancient evil. This happens while the world at large is in the midst of a civil war. This book totally fits the Dark Epic Fantasy genre, and as cliché as this will sound, it’s like A Song of Ice and Fire meets Lovecraft. By this, I mean there are demons, spirits, and others of the kind; it’s sprawling and grand in scope with a variety of POV’s and characters that were spread around the world, some of which eventually converged, some didn't or maybe haven’t yet. Not only is the storyline a rare experience for me because I haven’t read a lot of fantasy that features gothic horror elements, I also thought the magic system that centered heavily around religion was very fitting to the tone and story of the book, which served to enhance the experience of the readers even more.

Honestly speaking though, I expected to love this book so much more considering the huge praise that Kitty G—a great Booktuber and reviewer btw—gave to this book. Unfortunately, I had several problems, or at least plenty of up and down moments, with it; these moments caused me to struggle to complete this book. The first main issue I had with it was the main character, Adelko. Out of all the perspectives in the book, Adelko’s POV was the most dominant, and yet I found his and Horskram's storyline to be the most uninteresting one. I can’t help but feel like Adelko’s characteristics weren’t fully fleshed out and it was hard for me to care about him. On the other hand, I found all the other side characters' storylines to be much more enjoyable to read. For example, Vaskrian, a lowborn squire in training to become a knight, had a POV that gripped me right from his first appearance and it didn’t let up until the end of the book. His POV is in fact my favorite out of the entire cast. However, Vaskrian wasn’t the only interesting character; even a character that received the Daenerys treatment (by that I meant that the POV doesn’t converge yet in this book) was still a more compelling character than Adelko. The main reason for this is that the author spent a LOT of time on the world building and this happened mostly in Adelko's POV; the world-building aspect is in my opinion the double-edged blade of the book.

The main strength and weakness in Devil's Night Dawning is its world-building. Devil Night Dawning is filled with rich history, and the author deserves huge praise for this as it’s obvious that he has done a LOT of research to come up with all of it. My problem lies in the way it was told; it simply didn’t work with me. Instead of building the world gradually, it was laid out like, “bam, here’s the lore for you,” in a single chapter. Most of the time the author tended to over-explain the background of the world rather than focusing on the characterizations and the main plotline, which ended up hurting the quality and pacing of the book. For example, in Part 1, Chapter 8, Horskram tells the history of the world to Adelko. This part was extremely dense and done in a non-stop info-dumpy kind of way. It felt like hearing my history teacher lecturing for 30 minutes nonstop. Chapter 8 is just one example out of many; I had to reread that chapter three times and it still didn’t completely stick because it was too long for its own good. Before anyone accused me as not a fan of heavy world-building, let me clarify first that slow-paced character driven books and intricate world-building are my favorite kind of fantasy books. One of my favorite series, The Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson, spent a lot of time world-building but at the same time, it never forgot to keep the main character’s characterizations and developments as the focus of the story.

I have to admit that I thought of DNFing this book plenty of times during the first half of the book; the only thing that made me continue was the side characters' POVs and the hope that maybe the conclusion would pay off, and luckily it did. In terms of climax sequences, the author did a great job concluding the book especially considering that this is only the first book of a saga. Sure, it was a struggle for me to get there but it was worth it as there are POV’s convergences, great scenes, and pulse-pounding moments.

Finally, prose-wise, Black has a great writing style and voice. It’s not too straightforward and at the same time, it’s filled with some rarely used words that I thought were interesting to hear. There are plenty of missing commas that would’ve made the prose flows even better but overall it didn’t distract me. Considering that this is a self-published book, Damien Black did a great job on this.

Overall, I do think Devil’s Night Dawning, the first book in the Broken Stone Chronicles is a good book and a good start to a saga. In the end, it all comes down to preferences and taste and Devil's Night Dawning just wasn’t completely for me. The world in the book is extremely similar to Medieval Europe, and I prefer the fantasy books I read to take place in a completely new world. If I want to read something with a similar setting to our world, I’ll choose to read historical fiction instead. This is also why Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire and Red Queen's War really didn't click with me. So yes, to conclude this review, I can totally see this book appealing to many other readers out there. It might even be amazing for them because although this book isn’t for me, I totally think it still at least deserves a 6 out of 10 stars for all its quality. Now imagine the rating I might have given if the book was more suited to my taste and preferences!

I reviewed this as one of the judges for the finalist of SPFBO (Self Published Fantasy Blog off) 2017. Everything written here is my honest opinion of the book, and there are possibilities that parts that work for me will not work for others and vice versa. I wish Damien Black the best of luck in the final round of the competition.

You can find this and the rest of my Adult Epic/High Fantasy & Sci-Fi reviews at BookNest

[Kitty G Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my #SPFBO books and I have to say I was throughly pleased and excited to read this one not only because it sounded interesting, but also because the cover was great and I could tell pretty early on that this would be a darn good read. I've not ever heard of this author before #SPFBO, and this book is seriously under-rated on goodreads and elsewhere, but it deserves far more attention than it has so far had, and I hope that more people will go and pick this one up.

This is set in a world not too dissimilar from a medieval fantasy, however this takes strong influence from Christianity and fantasy stories alike. I could clearly see the passion the author has for other fantasy worlds in the writing of this one, but equally this felt very fresh and throughly well-developed throughout with a strong lore, background and expansive world-building. I definitely feel like I understand the ways of this world and that there is still much more to learn in future books. That's certainly something I appreciated, and I particularly loved the lessons, songs and stories we follow in the book along with some of the characters as they felt well-timed and thought-out.

The magic of this world is a holy and unholy one which focuses on the Left-Hand path and right-Hand path and is largely inspired by religion. Prayer and devotion along with monks and training are key to exorcisms and banishment of foul beasts from the realm. We also have wizards, hags, fey, and much more going on in the background and as the storylines develop we quickly see these coalescing and contrasting to form conflict and peril. There is also a huge amount of demon-spawn in this world who appear to be breaking through the barrier with the help of witches and wizards, and it seems that there may be some magical artefacts gone missing too.

The story follows a fair few characters who are all spread out across the world in the beginning of the book but as the story goes on we see many of them come together and join forces. Some of the stories, e.g Hettie and Adhelina's, were separate throughout the whole book, but I have no doubt at all that they will become major characters and pivotal storylines in book #2.

The characters most note-worthy include: Hoskram and Adelko who are an adept and a young novice monk who go around fighting demons with their holy magic. They are bad-ass and they probably have the most dominant story-line through this book, but I loved them as characters so that wasn't a problem for me.

We also have Braxus, a knight from a foreign land who is trying to petition the King of Adelko's land for help in the upcoming war. He has a good sense of humour and though his story took longer to get going it became clear he's a cool character by the end of the book and one to watch.

We have Vaskrian, a young Squire who is intent on becoming a knight one day even though he is young and of common birth. He was determined and resilient and although a little fickle he makes for a great character too.

We also have the Knights of the realm who are brave and fearless and Torgun is one of their number so we follow his adventures too.

We do encounter many others along the way like the Kings in two lands, the various nobles and religious men of these lands, and general people, but they weren't quite as major players.

Overall, I thought this was pretty excellent. Really strong as a story with great characters and wonderful writing throughout. For a fantasy story I was thoroughly impressed, for a self-published fantasy I was even more so. This is a book I can't wait to tell people about and hopefully get them to read. Even though it's long it's great! 5*s from me and I will review in full very soon :)

[Esme · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG that was AMAZING

Ridiculously long review to come soon.

----------

Plot:

This is a world where demons and spirits are a very real threat, and being possessed and needing an exorcism is something that’s a legitimate problem for Friars to solve.

There are dozens of characters in this book and a ton of POV’s, but one of the major threads of the story was following a Friar and his Acolyte as they go through the realm and banish demons and perform exorcisms. There’s a ton of horrifying things that can happen when there’s a Rent in the world that allows spirits from the Other Side to possess people.

There’s a bigger threat looming and the older Friar can sense it coming, he’s gathering evidence of a serious threat to the world when an ancient relic was stolen. The relic is a piece of tablet that’s been shattered, but when brought together they can open the gates to Gehenna, which is this worlds hell, and Rues (their God) will no longer have control over demonkind, and the world could end.

While all of this is going on there’s Jarls pronouncing themselves Princes and wars being fought. There’s knights and want-to-be knights roaming the land looking for fights to be won in the name of justice.

There’s a high born womans POV that’s about her betrothal to another kingdoms heir to form alliances because their realm is in jeopardy. There’s also a POV of her handmaid.

There’s a POV that focuses around a knight trying to form alliances for his father in a different realm.

There’s a POV of a King trying to keep his realm together.

There’s a POV of a young squire who desperately wants to be a knight, but has a serious temper problem and is low born, he’s a squire to an older surlier knight.

There’s so much shit going on you guys, oh my god. I really can’t even summarize well in a decent amount of space, if I were to try and cover half of it this post would be a novella.

Characters:

Adelko – he’s a young acolyte with a thirst for knowledge, he doesn’t have any desire to fight but repeatedly holds his own against serious demons and spirits. He’s probably my favorite character, he gets a lot of page time so you get to know him well and I like his overall demeanor. He has a good grounding in morals and in general he was easy to relate to.
Horskram – Adelko’s teacher. He’s older and pretty stern and strict, he takes his duties very seriously and he’s genuinely pious, he doesn’t like overly prideful behavior or any actions that would be ‘sinful’. He’s very powerful as well, one of the more powerful characters in the book, he’s able to stand up to a lot of ghastly and powerful demons.
Vaskarian – a hot headed squire who is constantly getting himself into trouble, and in turn gets his Knight in so much shit. He grows a bit through the book which was nice to see, he got into fights less and less. His dream is to become a knight, but it’s unlikely since he’s low born.
Sir Branas – Vaskarians Knight, he’s older, has a pretty sad backstory, and puts up with a lot of crap in the name of honor and duty, he doesn’t want Vaskarian around and does it because he has to, it creates an interesting dynamic that opposes the easier relationship of Adelko and Horskram (despite some fiascos).
Adhelina – she’s being married off to a neighbors heir to help secure her fathers lands, she’s absolutely furious about it and is making attempts to avert it even if it means abandoning her inheritance and running off to The Empire.
Braxus – a knight who’s father is planning on rebelling against his king, he’s slightly arrogant, loves the ladies, and is a decent knight overall. He’s been sent on a mission to secure allies for his fathers rebellion.
Sea Wizard – super creepy antagonist who seems to have his hand in everything, ruthless and evil he’s seeking to destroy everything
Kruhlheim – one of the rebelling Jarls that’s declared himself a prince
There’s actually about a handful of other POV’s or maybe more, but these are the ones that I felt got the most page time.

The first time these POV’s really start to merge is around 30%, so it takes a little bit of time, but they all intermix and merge at some point, although new POV’s were still being introduced at 83% into the book – you’re in for a super complex world.

Worldbuilding:

I feel like this review is super long already, and I haven’t even gotten to the world building which was on an epic scale. With 650 pages and so many POV’s, there was a great deal of world building

I think some of my favorite chapters were the ones where the characters were lost in the Fay forest, Tintagael, that played tricks on their minds. They’d cross a bridge and voices would beckon for them to jump, there were monsters and ghosts and hags.

The Fay themselves are interesting, being of the Other Side but having no allegiance to demons or angels – still feared among people though. They are fickle and are likely to kill you or have you kill yourself in some trap.

There are levels of demons and an enormous amount of lore surrounding the religions of this world, Abaddon being their Devil of sorts and they have similar tales, both having lost a battle for heaven and been confined to a hell.

There are different orders of priests that all connect to the Mother Temple, and they don’t always get a long with each other. There was a Purge in the last generation that wiped out many of the Argolian Order after they were falsely accused of witchcraft, tortured and burned to death.

Magic in this world is forbidden, it can create Rents in the world which weakens the hold Rues has over the demons, and they can slip through to the mortal world. There is no such thing as good magic because of this, and the Friars hunt down warlocks, witches and other magic users as well as demons. The seven schools of magic that used to be practiced were: Thaumaturgy, Transformation, Enchantment, Scrying, Alchemy, Necromancy, Demonology.

Elder Wizards used to rule the Known World back before the Breaking of the World – Rues punished the Known World because of an Elder Wizard who created a Tablet that could open the gates of Gehenna and release the demons – this is the tablet that was broken into pieces and the pieces are getting stolen.

There’s also a ton of geography and House war stuff going on – the world felt huge and almost endless. There’s realms that were only talked about as being far flung lands where pagans who worshiped old gods lived, and it’s hinted that maybe the next book would go there.

Pacing/Writing/Tone:

I always hesitate to call things grim dark because the meaning fluctuates from person to person, but with so much of the book revolving around demons and possessions and people dying and wars going on, I’d say it’s borderline. It wasn’t overbearingly grim dark where everything is horrible and gloomy but there’s a definite possibility that things could go terribly wrong and quickly if the antagonist can’t get dealt with.

The pacing could be slower for some, there is SO MUCH world building, and it can get really, really dense. I flew through it in 3 days, but I would imagine many would take a lot longer, especially since it’s 650 pages. I felt compelled to find out what was going on, and even though there were a ton of characters I felt like so many were fleshed out and so different from one another that it made it very enjoyable.

The writing was super clean and it absolutely felt like a well edited and well polished work, I was thoroughly impressed by the quality of writing. There were also a lot of words I had to look up – avuncular, adumbration, salubrious, soccour, pyrrhic etc.

Audience:

For people who love intense, intricate, complex world building of every kind, cultural, geography, House wars, ancient lore, religion, politics, civil wars, etc
For people who love a bunch of POV’s
For people who love exorcisms, demons, spirits, Fay and monsters
For people who love old school wizard mysterious magic
For people who like magic to have consequences
For people who like long books, 650 pages
For people who like series, not a stand alone

[James Tivendale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to follow sometime this week x

[Mark Lawrence]

I haven't read this yet but it is one of the ten finalists for the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off 2017.

That's one of 10 selected from 300 entrants, so it must have something going for it!

Read about the contest here:
http://mark---lawrence.blogspot.co.uk...

Check out the finalists here:
http://mark---lawrence.blogspot.co.uk...




Join my 3-emails-a-year newsletter #prizes

[Rob Hayes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Devil's Night Dawning (or DND) is a fantasy book heavily rooted in real world history. What I mean here is the dominant religion feels very much like Christianity, and clearly borrows from it in many circumstances, and the world itself is a classic European medieval setting. We follow along behind a bunch of characters ranging from monks performing exorcisms, knights doing knightly things, and a young noble woman trying to escape the arranged marriage laid out for her. All the while there is the threat of something unfathomably evil lurking behind the scenes, setting events in motion, and plotting the end of the world.

So it sounds like it hits on many of the classical fantasy tropes... and it does. Perhaps a little too much for my liking. DND is well written and the author clearly has not only a wonderful grasp of the English language (plenty of words in this tome I didn't know until Google saved the day), but also the know how to form those words into elegant descriptions. Not only that but the level of world building he has put into the series is on a level with Sanderson. It's actually baffling how much history Mr Black has created around this world. Unfortunately the delivery of that world building often felt a bit dry to me. I regularly found myself reading about how sir Whatshisface fought against lord Whosthatnow in the battle of Getoffmyland, but I rarely felt like those history lessons had any relevance other than window dressing. It left me occasionally feeling like I just wanted them to get on with the story. I'll stop to point out right now that this just means that type of world building wasn't for me... in the same way that much of the world building in Lord of the Rings isn't for me. It's very well done, it's just not the sort of style I personally in a book.

The characters were a tad hit or miss for me. Our main protagonist, monk in training Adelko, just felt flat. He rarely developed any personality beyond meek farmboy following along behind Wiseoldmaster. That being said, his supporting cast of Wiseoldmaster and Oddlyarrogantsquire were very enjoyable to read. If fact, the tale of the two monks and the squire was by far the best bit of the story. The exorcisms in this book are excellent. In fact, the monster hunting, as it were, is excellent. It's reminiscent of the Witcher (the games... I've not read the books yet) in many ways, in that there's a variety of demonic beasties in the world and they require different methods of banishing. I loved this. In fact, I kinda wish the book was all about the monks travelling the land finding various evil entities and banishing them back to the fiery hell whence they came.

Which brings me to the reason this one is getting 3 stars instead of 4. It felt like 2 disjointed books. The first was this thrilling tale of exorcism and demonic pursuit as two monks travel across the lands to warn the world of the coming apocalypse. And the second was a book about knights doing stuff. You can probably tell which of the 2 parts fell a bit flat to me. I just never really got on with the knights and their plight, and every time we got a chapter from them I found myself having to remember who was doing what and where, and also just wishing we'd get back to the monks and whatever beastie they were going to exorcise next.

So I'm giving DND 3 out of 5. I enjoyed it, but it's a tale of two stories and I wanted more of one and less of the other.

[Lukasz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

Devil’s Night Dawning gets stellar reviews and ratings. Hype is growing. After checking synopsis, I gave this one a try.

I won’t lie. It was a struggle and at times I was tempted to DNF it even though I think it’s a good book. Maybe even very good.

DND opens with nicely written exorcism scene that gives us a taste of pure horror and suggests that the evil forces protagonists will face should NOT be belittled.

It seems that the barrier between worlds is breaking down, and the dark forces of the Other Side have nefarious plans for mortal vale and its inhabitants.

To make things worse the kingdom teeters on the brink of civil war and the kingdom becomes a dangerous place to live in.

The story follows a large number of characters, some of the stories intersect in this book, other will probably do it in a sequel.

Main protagonists include a pair of witch hunters / exorcists – Adept Horskram and Novice Adelko who, after discovering missing artifact, are followed by terrifying abomination and forces of evil that’ll do anything to terminate them.

Apart from them few other important characters are:

Vaskrian – a young squire whose impetuous nature puts him in a lot of troubles and awkward situations. He wants to become a knight but given his low birth, it’s not something probable.

Braxus - a knight from a foreign land who is trying to petition the King of Adelko's land for help in the upcoming war. He’s fun. He has a good sense of humor. His story arc develops slowly but is interesting.

Adhelina – a princess who’s being married off to a neighbors heir in order to secure her father’s lands. She’s not happy about it. She’s ready to run away from her inheritance.

There’s more of POV’s but I think these are most important ones. The story is epic in the scope and number of arcs. It can be described as fantasy horror. And it won’t be an exaggeration. Some of the scenes are written in a way that can easily bring you Terrorsleep.

Damien Black is an excellent writer, his prose is elegant and rich. There’s a lot of archaisms and words I needed to check in dictionary. Happily Kindle dictionaries make things really easy for a reader.

The characters felt well developed and very well written. On few occasions I wanted to slap Vaskrian for his naiveté / stupidity. I think that each character felt significantly different and the prose changed a bit for each POV. Great craftsmanship.

Magic system and religion are in a way based on Christianity but with some nice twits. For me, it felt really fresh and original.

World Building is very developed and the author seems to be very detail oriented. I hate to say it, but I think this focus on world building and details is where the shoe pinches—it's just taking too much of a reader’s time with too little payoff.

The book is long. It counts more than 600 pages and the pacing is uneven. Some chapters are brilliant and fast, other just drag. A lot of world-building is done through dialogue and long telling that was tiresome for me. The pacing improves and the plot tightens around 35 % of the book and it means you have to read close to 200 pages just to get some understanding of the story.

Additionally Damien Black loves descriptions. He does them well but at times it feels like he tries to describe too much. I believe given the chance he would describe in detail every rock the heroes pass or tuft they step on. Some of descriptions felt pointless to me. They killed the tension and did absolutely nothing to advance the plot.

There were times when I lost interest in the story. I felt disconnected from the story and characters quite often.

While I appreciate Damien Black imagination and creativity, my reading experience wasn’t always pleasant. At times I felt bored and tired. Hence the three star rating.

Having said that, I’d like to emphasize that it’s very well written book, especially if you enjoy rich and detailed descriptions. The story is interesting and feels fresh – there’s too little horror fantasy on the market. Some of the scenes are simply incredible (the ones in Tingtael forest will stay for me for a long time).

If only the story was 30% shorter, it would be incredibly good book. This, of course, is just my opinion. I encourage everyone looking for some fresh fantasy voice to give this one a try.

Edit - check The Nerd Book Review podcast - they have interview with Damien Black here

[kartik narayanan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Devil's Night Dawning starts off slow but it inexorably draws the reader in.

Think of this book as 'A Name of the Rose' meets 'The Exorcist'.

[David Hambling · Rating 5 out of 5]

An epic fantasy in the tradition of “Game of Thrones” but with more wit and imagination, DND’s multiple heroes and anti-heroes carry out their quests on a widescreen and painstakingly-crafted imaginary world. Evil is afoot, and it is up to a pair of exorcists – the wise old master with a past, and his youthful apprentice – to get to the bottom of it. However, as if invading demons were not enough, their world is also wracked with a civil war, one which may well be linked to the evil they are themselves battling.

There is much to enjoy here, with a full quota of skull-splitting combat, ale-quaffing in taverns, epic sieges, desperate escapes, blackest magic and acts of heroism. However, there is also a degree of moral complexity at work, not to mention a fully-worked out theology and demonology, history and geography, and it is not quite so simple as good vs evil.

A fantastic read for lovers of swords and sorcery.

[The Nerd Book Review · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished this book so a longer review will be forthcoming once I've had a little bit more time to think about things. I also plan on interviewing the author shortly. If things work out it will actually be my next interview episode on the podcast at the beginning of January.

I know that these reviews are about the books and the authors who write them but first off I have to mention that I double majored in history and religious studies in college. My area of focus for both of them was the early interactions between the three Abrahamic monotheistic religions. I still love studying this period and pretty much my only non-fantasy reading is history. So, with this being said, I almost felt like this book was written with my interests and tastes in mind haha. I absolutely loved this book! With my background though I figured that maybe I should mention that it would have been hard to write a fantasy novel whose real life underpinnings were so close to one of my favorite subjects of all time. If the novel had not been well written I probably would have absolutely hated it for butchering something that I could have loved so there's that too.

The book is pretty much a play on Europe in roughly the 8th-10th century or so with the main religion for most of the mainland kingdoms following the path of the Reedemer with the worship of Reus. The Redeemer was broken on a wheel in an empire that is very much like the Roman empire who crucified Jesus. The religion and its' background story, an archangel fighting for power against Reus, who was then banished to hell, is pretty much just a straight adaptation of Christianity. The Argolian order that one of the main PoV characters belongs to is tasked with ferreting out demonic posession and rooting out sorcerors using tactics like one would see in the Exorcist or something like that. The entire world hasn't been converted and there are still a lot of pagans out there. There is a group in the North who are pretty much Vikings and the big empire reminds me of the Byzantines. There have been crusades to take lands from a group like the Persians or Muslim Sassanids as well. I found this framework to work extremely well for giving me as the reader the ability to free up some of my mental capacity to remember things as they move all over his version of Europe by just putting real places in my mind as the placeholder until I got a better grasp of where things really were.
The main story is that the monks are trying to stop a mysterious dark sorcerer from gaining the fragments of a dark and evil headstone that could cause the sundering of the earth and allow the demons and other evil beings to come back into the human realm and bring about an age of darkness. There will be a variety of obstacles put in their way.
The book has multiple PoV charactes but pretty close to half of the book is taken up by a teenage novice monk named Adelko who is training with the Argolian order. His master is an adept named Horskram who is a taciturn former knight turned monk who is renowned for his ability to fight warlocks and banish demons. Adelko is very innocent when the story starts out but quickly learns that the world is not so perfect.
The second largest PoV character was a great counter to Adelko. He is a squire named Vaskrian who really wants to be a knight one day. He is a commoner though so the knights he squires to, along with the noble born squires, do not believe he is worthy to become a knight because of his base ancestry. Oh yeah, nobles are real assholes in this book and commoners are treated much like they probably would have been in real life. Vaskrian strives to follow the code of chivalry but he does a lot of fighting, drinking, and womanizing. He and most of the other knights and other fighting types are portrayed pretty accurately, they claim to be chivalrous but their behavior is anything but.
We have one PoV character named Braxian who is the son of a noble in what could be considered their version of northern England whose lands are being sorely pressed by highland barbarians while his king is under the thrall of a sorceress. He is much better than the average knight when it comes to his respect for commoners but definitely likes the ladies and his father isn't a fan of his amoral ways.
Our last PoV character is the daughter of a lord named Adhelina. She has the smallest number of chapters until very late in the book and it seems she will play a much larger role in book 2.

I think this book was very worthy of being a SPFBO 2017 finalist and I look forward to reading more of his books in the future. I hope you listen to my interview with Black in early January.

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars
This epic fantasy had an amazing opening with an intense and creepy exorcism scene. As someone who loves possession stories, I was very hopeful that this series could become a new favourite. However, after that opening sequence, those possession elements fell into the background and the book became a very standard European inspired epic fantasy. Personally, I tend to prefer more diverse, nontraditional fantasy stories so this one just did not match my reading tastes. The story told multiple perspectives and I was only invested in the exorcist priest and his apprentice. While this was not a personal favourite, I would still recommend this one to readers who enjoy these kinds of classic fantasy narratives. This novel itself. was very well written with rich worldbuilding and reasonably well developed characters.

[Icy_Space_Cobwebs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review of DEVIL'S NIGHT DAWNING
by Damien Black

DEVIL'S NIGHT DAWNING is an excellent fantasy adventure, which immediately captures attention with its reader's hook and talented writing. Somewhat reflecting Judeo-Christian cosmology, nonetheless the superb world-building stands on its own merits, appealing to readers who love fantasy and even to readers like myself, for whom fantasy is not usually the first choice of genre. In fact, it is reading exceptional fantasy like DEVIL'S NIGHT DAWNING which convinces me to take up the genre!

This is a lengthy dark epic fantasy (650 pages) and is the First in the Broken Stone Series. More excellence to anticipate!

The author generously provided a review digital copy, at no remuneration. This is the fair and impartial view of this reviewer.

[Rebekah Teller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This dark fantasy war epic would appeal to a specific type of reader. Unfortunately, I am not that type. I can appreciate the amount of development and time the author put into this tale. The world building is vast and historical. Showcasing the scope of the world relies heavily on names and events. Everything is compared to past happenings within the setting.

The author displays complex vocabulary, though in some cases it didn't seem practical for all the characters to have such a vocabulary.

Magic users are rare and mostly seen as evil. Knights live by a specific code of chivalry that affects their behavior in battles as well as tournaments.

Adelko is the main character we spend the most time with. He practices a detailed religion which appears to be a fantasy variation of Christianity. His travels across the countryside bring us through different regions we learn more about as Adelko and his party strives to reach the king, to warn him of an evil warlock's plot for world domination.

There are many point of view characters, and they serve to flesh out bits and pieces of the brewing war. We do not spend very much time with them. I had trouble feeling invested in their conflicts.

Many of the characters' experiences aren't directly part of the plot, and while that brings a certain level of realism to their lives, it detracts from the story immersion. Details of every conversation, every night along the road, every dinner in every castle, unrelated to the plots at hand, bog the reader down. In a story with such a wide scope, the reader already has much to digest.

The author excels at small scale action scenes. I thoroughly enjoyed witnessing the exorcism, the haunted forest, and a few other fight scenes, and I wish there were more of them.

Devil's Night Dawning is a slow-burner for studious readers who enjoy historical-style telling and sprawling plot lines.

[NormaCenva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual Rating 4,5 Stars

Re-Reading notes: Time for the Audiobook version!

This book is very well written. And gives a unique sense of traveling back in time. Yes, the characters and their circumstances are completely different from our history but you can see the parallels. The only thing that was getting me out of the story some times was the heaviness of the spoken language. Some times I needed to re-read paragraphs several times to understand what was happening and what the character were saying.
I already have book 2 on my shelf and am really excited to read it next.

[C.T. Phipps · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

DEVIL'S NIGHT DAWNING by Damien Black is a dark fantasy story set in a European-esque setting afflicted by demons, a generational blood feud, and a young woman who discovers running away from an arranged marriage is not as easy in the story books. This was a highly entertaining read and I found it to be one of my favorites of 2018. The book did have some criticisms but it's a solid piece of fantasy straight from the independent circuit.

The book begins with a fascinating exorcism scene straight out of a horror movie as a priest of the Argolian Order manages to drive a demon out of a young farm girl. The world is filled with supernatural evils which said order fights using a combination of faith and their not-quite-heretical knowledge of magic. Legendary exorcist and witch hunter Horskram soon finds himself on the trail of a much-much more dangerous threat and is aided by his apprentice Adelko. The adventures of the two are disrupted by the Jarl of Thule raising an army to rebel against the king who spared his life when his father did the same.

I'm actually skipping over a large number of the subplots since this is one of the books which follows a George R.R. Martin pattern of many different viewpoints on the events around them. Damien Black's universe is somewhat more mainstream than Martin's own with clear divisions between good and evil as well as a focus on the failures of the knights to live up to their ideals as heroes. At least in this world.

Overall, I very much enjoyed the two central plots of Horskram trying to find the missing book of sorcery that his order has protected for centuries. I appreciated the Sherlock Holmes and Watson kind of relationship he had with Adelko, which also reminded me a bit of the protagonists in THE NAME OF THE ROSE. Adelko is probably not fit to be a monk but probably not going to find the life of a warrior to be the romantic one he thought of either.

Damien Black has excellent world building and while I think he could have done a slightly more thorough job of hiding his influences of differentiating the main religion from Medieval Catholicism, the world makes sense and invokes numerous real life historical as well as religious sources. He incorporates demonology, the Fair Folk, Norse myth, and Greek without missing a beat.

I think my favorite characters were the few morally ambiguous in the setting. Characters who can't control their homicidal fury at being looked down upon and snooty murderous nobles who are, nevertheless, on the side of the heroes. Seeing them contrast against the heroic Horskram was some of the best portions of the book. I had a similar affection for the King's widowed sister who simply wanted a relationship with her knightly lover but found him treating her terribly in the name of honor as well as duty.

If I had any complaints about the book then I think at 600 pages, the book is a bit overlong and they could have tightened the book considerably. I never quite bonded with the character of Adhelina and felt her character arc didn't intersect with the main plot enough to warrant presence in this book. I would have moved her to the sequel where she will, presumably, play a bigger role in the story.

In conclusion, this was an enjoyable novel that I found quite entertaining. It is not quite as dark as it could be and could be a bit tighter but it's, overall, quite a good work. I think fans looking for a solid work of epic fantasy then they'll probably enjoy this.

[Terrible Timy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Devils Night Dawning won the third place in SPFBO 2017! I've been following this book for quite a while now and am very happy that it got so far! Check it out people, really!

Updated and edited review can be found here: https://starlitbook.com/2018/03/22/de...

Note: I recieved a free copy in exchange of a honest review

I absolutely respect how much research and work he puts into his books, resulting in a pretty well built and complex world. Devil's Night Dawning has first book problems, which means it has a lot of world building and introducing to the characters and sometimes dragging pace. It took me exactly a month to read this one (my average is about a week or two depending on the length), though I traveled for a week at the time, which kept me away from reading, obviously.
What I liked: it was well written, despite its length there wasn't really a part, where I was bored. Black kept all the storylines in his hands (Adelko and Horskram, Vaskrian, Adhelina and Hettie, Torgun, Braxus), and they were vowen together smoothly. He built a complex world with kingdoms, myths, and interesting characters with bad and good personal traits equally. I think my favorite characters were Adelko with his curiosity and youthful awe as he looks at the world around him. I also liked Adhelina, her strongwilledness (is that a word?), her spirit and that she takes her fate in her own hands. Sure, she is a bit naive and has an idealistic view of the world, but she spent her whole life in a castle, pampered by her father. Go figure.
The story was nicely closed, altough some questions and loose ends remained, which made me want to read the next book. It's always a good sign. What stands out for me even now is the exorcism at the beginning of the book, when Adelko and Horskram tries to get rid of a demon. It was a powerful start which totally glued me to the book, making me want to read more about how they deal with demons and other evil creatures. The other part I remember vividly is when they enter the haunted forest, Tintagael. I never got around to ask why did he choose that name and if it has anything to do with the Arthurian legends (Tintagel was named as the place where Arthur was born). I pretty much enjoyed those scenes set in the forest, the myths sorrunding it, the Fay Folk, their adventures in there. I certainly hope we'll visit it once more in later books.

What I didn't like: The things I write next may be irrelevant to others, and contains my private opinion. Black, along with a new world built a new religious system too. Clearly, it was based on Christianity, altough with some twists and many changes (could have been more, though). That's fine, I have nothing against this method. What was a bit unsettling to me, were the choice of names in some cases. Many elements of the myths he created were based on other, "real" myths. But while he changed some of the names, others he kept. Either change all of it, or none of it. In addition to that I don't really get Ezekiel how did become Archangel of defensive war... (For those who are unfamiliar with the Bible: Ezekiel was a prophet, who forsee the destruction of Jerusalem and the built of the Third Temple). I know these are not really important bits, but my historian self needed to let it out. On a more positive note, I like how he explained the birth of the Seven Princes as opposite of the Seven Seraphim.

All in all, it was a good read, though a long one. I would recommend it those who like a good fantasy book about an adventurous quest, with some magic, a brewing war on the horizon, and complex characters, some of whose personality develops during the journey they take. And don't be discouraged by it's length, it's worth it!

[Mihir · Rating 4 out of 5]

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Devil’s Night Dawning is a SPFBO 2018 finalist and one which pegged my because of its focus on demons and demonology. The story focusses on a multi variate POV structure and here’s where the author really shines as this book is absolutely wonderfully written to showcase all the different perspectives and the problems each characters face.

Case in point is the prologue itself which introduces a character and tell us so much about him before switching to the main characters and we almost never hear about the prologue character again. Then we get introduce to a novice monk, a squire, and a princess who all are caught in a maelstrom of events beyond their control. The author builds up the world and the past history by way of some info dumps but also sheds a light on the lore and history of the world. Some folks will be able to find a certain Judeo-Christian slant to the mythology that’s utilized in the story. For some this won’t be interesting at all and for some it will be intriguing as they are comfortable with it. For me, it was slightly new and I was hooked onto the whole mix.

The way the author unfolded the story and the development of the characters was very reminiscent of Tad Williams’ fantasy works. In this regard, Damien Black has chosen a wonderful legend to emulate. I’m sure that the author didn’t plan it out to be such but for me there’s a wonderful mirror to reflect. I also liked how the author showcased horror within the story and ultimately there’s very fantasy book which combine epic fantasy and horror. I know among the older fantasy titles David Gemmell and Terry Brooks showcased fantasy mixed in with demons however they didn’t quite have a horror aspect to it. Peter V. Brett recently showcased demonology within fantasy and again it was a good series. With Damien Black, he also has the horror quotient to solidify the story and that was what I really appreciated about it.

The only drawback for me about this debut was the staid place throughout the book, I can see why this might be a problem for some readers. For me, it was a tad troublesome in parts as this is a big book but the world history and characters kept me intrigued throughout. The way the book ends, I want to read the next immediately and thanks to the book being released already, I had already bought the sequel. Damien Black certainly marked himself out with this debut and I for one will be keeping an eye out for his series.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 7.5/10

Disclaimer:
Devil’s Night Dawning is the book that ended my participation in the 2017 SPFBO competition organised by Mark Lawrence. This has in no way influenced my opinion of the book. 😉 😄

INITIAL THOUGHTS
I had a harder time than usual deciding my final rating once I finished reading. When it was good, Devil’s Night Dawning was VERY good, yet I also found it quite frustrating at times. The story is epic in scale, and it’s always apparent (for the entirety of the book) that the author has devoted an incredible amount of time and thought in conceiving both the setting and the lore for his tale. However, I’m not sure it was necessary to impart quite so much of it to the reader, for while all the historical accounts etc. are interesting, much of it feels superfluous.

The writing is very detailed, and there is a considerable amount of exposition throughout the story which is often dense and frequently slows down the momentum of the narrative. But in spite of how frustrating it was having the story interrupted by yet another account about how Sir So-And-So did such-and-such at some point in the past, I was always engrossed in the story and always eager to know what was going to transpire next. That said, I can certainly understand why some readers might have issues with the sheer amount of exposition.

I was impressed with the scope of the author’s vocabulary. He makes copious use of archaic terminologies which contribute a lot to increasing the authenticity of the medieval Northern European inspired world; readers will definitely want to have a dictionary to hand while reading.

Overall, I really enjoyed the story and look forward to reading the sequel. My assumption (and hope) is that all the subsequent books in the series will be significantly lighter on the exposition given just how much there is in Devil’s Night Dawning. There can’t be too much more history etc. that needs to be conveyed to readers.


FULL REVIEW PENDING!!!

[James West · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is just a fantastic adventure story with horror elements added.

[Shane Findlay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very promising start to a series that I hope becomes more profane as it unfolds. Book 2 ordered. Oh yes, great lexicon!

[Ulff Lehmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth back when it first came out as paperback, at a time when I still read translations. The story staid with me, the richness of characters and world. Devil's Night Dawning feels similar, an epic with heart.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book starts with a scene straight out of _The Exorcist_. Before long we've established an interesting history and cosmology, and psychic powers.

Unfortunately, it then veers quickly into tired cliche that just killed my desire to pick the book back up.

Less than 20% through and we have:

1. Common-born squire chafing at never being able to become a knight, and fighting with the young nobles he's obviously better than.
2. Noble young lady who just wants to study being married off to an odious man she detests for political purposes.
3. Galahad-esque pinnacle of knighthood who's too good for this world, played off against the spoiled and cruel son of the order's commander

After such a promising start, it was desperately disappointing.

[Justin Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is superb. I have been transported into a world of religion, civil war, Magic, Monsters & Knights. It truly is a descriptive book & makes me create a picture in my mind where each scene is set. The characters are likeable & loathsome & each person has a good background story which eventually will all come together. I would highly recommend this book to any readers of Fantasy/Horror genre. Looking forward to the next in the series.

[C Dove · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written. Set in a time of feudalism and sorcery. A sect of the main church are set on a path to recover a section of a long separated relic from the time of angels among men before the fall of angels from heaven.
The author has taken great pains to grow the characters and make them human with all the good and bad that is in their nature. Almost tolkin-like in style the book is a long read but well worth it,

[Lex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I honestly don't know how to rate this because I think it's an objectively good book and I enjoyed the hell out of it however it took me 6+ months to read and I'm someone who read 132 books in 2019... So idk why it took so long, maybe it's just me. But it's a really enjoyable books once you get into it. It feels very classic almost like the Ember Blade by Chris Wooding (a book I will never get over. I'm very passionate about how both underrated and objectively perfect the book is) but it has modern sensibilities. The premise is that there's this artifact that was broken into 4 pieces and scattered across the world and a evil warlock is summoning demons and retrieving them to put the headstone back together and bring about some kind of doom. He's a shadowy figure we don't see in this books as he's a puppet master from afar. We follow a novice monk to an order of witch hunter exorcists traveling with his master and we follow a squire to a knight of the realm. They end up having to be the ones to deal with this situation and they're being hounded by dark forces because of it. It's an awesome concept and we'll executed. I finally finished it and immediately bought the next audiobook and it's downloading right now. So you know it's good. I think I'm the issue here.

[Vanessa Haley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book free in exchange for an honest review.
If you are looking for an epic fantasy book, "Devil's Night Dawning" by Damien Black is a MUST read. I was hooked from the first page, and you will be too, it's THAT good!

Damien Black is a new author to me, and so is the fantasy genre, and after reading "Devil's Night Dawning", I am a fan of both. Damien's writing style is delightfully creative, adventurous, and his writing will skillfully weave you into the exhilarating story line from the start. The plot is filled with adventure and fantasy in abundance, with wars raging out of control on many fronts, and many dark forces of magic trying to take over the realms. The two main characters, witch hunters, embark on a journey to rid their land of all that is evil. Along their journey they will meet many interesting characters, from witches and warlocks, to kings and knights, all who have a part to play in this epic novel. However it seems with every turn the two hunters take, and for every evil they vanquish, more evil lies ahead. The "Devil's Night Dawning" will captivate and lure you to the very end..... I can't wait for the sequel!

[vakilo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh, leider war das überhaupt nichts für mich.

Eine mittelalterliche Fantasywelt mit angehauchten christlichen Ansichten von Gut und Böse, die sich auch in der Magie spiegeln. Dann sind da die Protagonisten, die gegen das Böse kämpfen usw. - ein Klischee nach dem anderen.

Die Klischees hätten mich an sich nicht gestört, aber das Tempo war zu langatmig für mich und die Charaktere wirken sehr flach. Selbst als die Sicht vom Magier zum Ritter wechselte -man hat zwar andere Charaktere im Umfeld, aber "die Stimme" bleibt identisch. Es gab ein paar Stellen die interessant wurden, aber die waren zu schnell vorbei. :/

Sonst lese ich die meisten Bücher am Stück, aber wenn es wie hier nur stockt und ich schon zu was anderem greifen muss, damit ich das Buch nicht komplett abbrechen und im Endeffekt lohnt sich das dann immer noch nicht, dann ist das Buch einfach nichts für mich.

[Kayla Krantz · Rating 5 out of 5]

~I received a free copy in exchange for my honest review~

So much action packed into every page! Yes, it’s a lengthy book, but I promise Devil’s Night Dawning is well-worth the read even to people like me who’s first genre may not be fantasy. The story begins by walking the reader through an intense exorcism and things get more gripping with each sentence. When a relic is stolen by a warlock, the main characters Adelko and Horskram must go on a quest to stop him before he rains down catastrophes. Can’t wait to see where this series takes me next!

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another 'okay' one to add to the ridiculously long list of books already tacked on there.

I think it was pretty clear what my rating was going to be throughout my status updates. There were some irritations that niggled me enough to take me straight out of the story, which is never a very good thing. I didn't find the 'stories' sprinkled throughout all that natural in expanding the world to our eyes.

Literally no one talks like that. Sometimes I wish the teacher characters would shove a text at their student and have them read the history themselves, rather than sit around a campfire and discuss it in length. You know, because this particular teacher character was known to be short of temper without a real tolerance for such ignorance. But ya know, maybe it is just me trying to find flaws.

Characters suffering the strain of bullying also rile me up. Not that it happens, absolutely not! It's a part of our reality that may never be shaken. But honestly, the very idea that a single character is under the scrutiny of every single person? No one stands up to the bullies? It always results in a physical tiff? Maybe that's not so unusual when considering the characters own inability to talk it out - rather, forcing a physical confrontation on his own. But it got a little comical every time the character found himself in the company of another only for the same rotation to occur.

Bullying.

Antagonizing.

Confrontation.

Someone disrupts it.

Eh.

That said, I do think this is a good book and it does warrant a look! The flow of the text is definitely on point, especially being a self published work! There wasn't any of the typical mistakes I see in them. The descriptions are detailed and vast. If that's not yer thing, this probably isn't for you!

I just wasn't pulled it enough to keep with it for long.

[Lena (Sufficiently Advanced Lena) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5